Pakistan Shaheens cricket team will begin their campaign in the eight-team ACC Men’s Emerging Teams T20 Asia Cup 2024 today with a match against India ‘A’ at Oman Cricket Academy Ground, Muscat, Oman.
The event starts today, Friday, with two Group A matches pitting Bangladesh ‘A’ against Hong Kong and Afghanistan ‘A’ against Sri Lanka ‘A’.
Led by Mohammad Haris, the 15-member Shaheens team has been placed in Group B and will go head-to-head against the hosts Oman on 21 October, followed by their third group match against the United Arab Emirates on 23 October. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the semi-finals, to be played on 25 October followed by the final on 26 October.
The Pakistan Shaheens completed a five-day training camp in Karachi, prior to travel to Oman at the Hanif Mohammad National High-Performance Centre.
This is going to be the maiden edition of the ACC Emerging Teams in the T20 format while the previous five editions in 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2023 were staged in the List-A format. Pakistan have won the tournament in 2019 under Saud Shakeel and in 2023 under Haris.
Apart from skipper Haris, the other capped player in the Shaheens squad are Arafat Minhas, Haider Ali, Rohail Nazir, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Omair Bin Yousuf, Qasim Akram, Shahnawaz Dahani and Sufiyan Moqim. Meanwhile, for the first time, the Shaheens will be represented by Abdul Samad, Ahmed Daniyal, Yasir Khan and Zaman.
Mohammad Haris: “The Emerging Teams T20 Asia Cup will come as a great opportunity for all players in the Shaheens squad to avail the opportunity and thrive under high pressure.
All three will test out our potential because the teams we are facing are highly competitive and the format we do play needs proactiveness during all phases of the game. The players in our squad are coming into this tournament after having featured in two white-ball domestic tournaments, and I do expect them to hit the ground running once we take on to the field for our first game of the tournament this Saturday.
